Be Ready To Give Answer

And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?

But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye; and be not afraid of their terror, nor be troubled;

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

--I Peter 3:13-15

Praise of Man

Should praise of man be more to me
Than God's most blessed favor?
And though man might reject His word,
The Truth remains forever;
Unchanging, sure, it does impart
A comfort to the poor in heart.

Shall I to please the blinded throng
Withhold Thy word so truthful?
Or thus to soothe the ears of men
Of their reproach be mindful,
To gain earth's gilded joys, or flee
The cross endured, my Lord, by Thee?
--Zion's Harp #113 vs. 2 & 4

Lions and Bears

Here David was being groomed in the back side of the desert. Believe me, dear ones, you are being groomed at this time, wherever your station is in life. Wherever the bears and lions come from and try to attack, like they did the sheep David was shepherding.

I believe David was a praying boy. Probably learned from his father, Jesse, and his mother. I pray to God that we too would be the examples to our children and grandchildren.
...

I believe David was one, as he sat on the back side of the desert. He looked up and saw the moon and the clouds and went back and read the words of Moses and pondered those words. Knew that there was a God in heaven. As a little boy, I believe his faith started growing. He was out there probably alone many times and, as David made mention here, one time a bear came after the sheep. He gave God the credit: "He helped me to kill the bear." Another time a lion came. One place it says, he even took the lion and pulled part of the lion's beard out and he killed the lion too that came to destroy his sheep.

Are you keeping track of the times that you've killed your lions and bears? You should. If you don't, you will not be ready for the battle because you are not remembering what the Lord did for you in the past.
--Sermon Excerpt: Bro. D.F.

Confidence in God

Here was David on the back side of the desert. He was being trained for the battles of life. Dear ones, even David, as a young man, yes, he was a youth. He probably didn't have any of the battle scars on him that the old soldiers had.

You notice Saul didn't step up. The Bible tells us earlier, when Saul was chosen king, he was head and shoulders taller than the rest of them. But he didn't stand up to the battle against Goliath and neither did Saul's general. And they were big men. They were men of war.

But David was a youth. His faith started growing in the desert. He watched God work in his life. I can imagine how he feared, being there by himself in the night, the wild animals. He came to faith to believe that, even by watching the sun come up in the morning and the moon and the stars by night, knowing that God had them all named. He put his faith in this God. He hadn't seen Him. But He gave God the credit. Just like he did when he said, "the battle is the Lord's."

I believe we all have to remember this in the days we are going to be going through. The battle is the Lord's.

It doesn't matter how many jet planes and how powerful our military is. God doesn't want us to put our confidence in those things. He wants our confidence to be in Him. Yet we have reason sometimes, and our human nature is to put confidence in men, or military and chariots. And the Bible says, cursed is the man that puts his confidence in a man and blessed is a man who puts his confidence in God.
--Sermon Excerpt: Bro. D.F.

If We Knew

Could we but draw back the curtains
That surround each other's lives;
See the naked heart and spirit,
Know what spur the action gives.
Often we should find it better -
Purer than we judge we should -
We would love each other better
If we only understood.

Could we judge all deeds by motives,
See the good and bad within;
Often we should love the sinner
All the while we loathe the sin.
Could we know the powers working
To overthrow integrity,
We would judge each other's errors
With more patient charity.

If we knew the cares and trials;
Know the efforts all in vain,
And the bitter disappointments;
Understood the loss and gain --
Would the grim eternal roughness
Seem, I wonder, just the same?
Would we help where we now hinder?
Would we pity where we blame?

Ah! We judge each other harshly,
Knowing not life's hidden force;
Knowing not the fount of action
Is less turbid at its source.
Seeing not amid the evils
All the golden grains of good,
Oh! we'd love each other better
If we only understood.
--Author Unknown

The Cross Sets the Spirit Free

Our saving hope is all in vain,
If here our love should cease,
For in the man of Galilee,
We find the gift of peace.
'Tis not the babe, but Christ the man
Who walked in Galilee;
'Tis not the manger, but the cross
That sets the spirit free.

Be not content this babe to know,
Nor stay at Bethlehem,
But go with Christ to Calvary's brow,
Beyond Jerusalem.
'Tis there men learn to know the Christ,
For there He bore man's sin.
Then open wide the door of heart,
And let the Saviour in.
--Hymns of Zion #36 vs. 2-3

Waiting

God oft gave beyond all expectation
More than heart had wished for to behold;
Should not this give us new inspiration
To await what His Word has foretold?

Ne'er a word of God was uttered vainly,
Although its fulfillment seemed afar;
Noble things take time, though promised plainly;
And the very best we find in God.
--Zion's Harp #244 vs. 6-7

Question

Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth? --Luke 18:8

Be Strong!

Be strong!
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;
We have hard work to do, and loads to lift.
Shun not the struggle; face it.
'Tis God's gift.

Be strong!
Say not the days are evil - Who's to blame?
And fold the hands and acquiesce - O shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely,
In God's name.

Be strong!
It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day how long,
Faint not, fight on!
Tomorrow comes the song.
--Maltbie D. Babcock

Pray for Strength

Quit you like men, be strong. --I Cor. 16:13

Do not pray for easy lives! Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle. --P. Brooks

We must remember that it is not in any easy or self-indulgent life that Christ will lead us to greatness. The easy life leads not upward, but downward. Heaven always is above us, and we must ever be looking up towards it. There are some people who always avoid things that are costly, that require self-denial, or self-restraint and sacrifice, but toil and hardship show us the only way to nobleness. Greatness comes not by having a mossy path made for you through the meadow, but by being sent to hew out a roadway by your own hands.

Sigh and Cry

And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:

Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark... --Ezekiel 9:4-6

Do we sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst of our cities and our nation? Or do we become so calloused that we scarcely perceive them? Or do we even become interested in them?

The Lord marked those that were "sighing and crying" as His own.

Builder or Wrecker?

I watched them tear a building down;
A gang of men in a busy town.
With a mighty heave and lusty yell,
They swung a beam and a side wall fell.

I said to the foremen, "Are these men as skilled
As the men you'd hire if you had to build?"
He gave a laugh and said, "No indeed!
Just a common laborer is all I need.
And I can wreck in a day of two
What it took the builder a year to do."

And I thought to myself as I went my way,
"Just which of these roles have I tried to play?
Am I a builder who works with care
Building others up by the rule and square,
Or am I a wrecker as I walk the town
Content with the labor of tearing down?"
--Author Unknown

The Weaver

My life is but a weaving

Between my Lord and me …

I may not choose the colors;

He knows what they should be;

For He can view the pattern

Upon the upper side,

While I can see it only

On this, the underside.

Sometimes He weaveth sorrow,

Which seemeth strange to me;

But I will trust His judgment

And work on faithfully.

‘Tis He who fills the shuttle;

He knows just what is best;

So I shall weave in earnest

And leave with Him the rest.

Not till the loom is silent

And the shuttles cease to fly,

Shall God unroll the canvas,

And explain the reason why

The dark threads are as needful,

In the weaver’s skillful hand,

As the threads of gold and silver

In the pattern He has planned.
—Author Unknown

Overcoming

...There is no condemnation unto those that have risen in Christ Jesus, but there is yet a condemnation unto all that have not risen unto Christ Jesus in the spirit. To those that have not been eating of the same meat, neither drinking of the same spiritual drink.

And let us be minded of this that we may all be of such that have drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, that also followed us, and that is the Rock of Christ. Christ is the Rock, the Rock of Ages. That is the Rock that we shall fall upon. If we fall upon that Rock, it shall be well with us. Then we are humbled; then we are near unto the Lord. But, if we do not fall on th at Rock and that Rock has to, in time, fall on us and condemn us, it says we will be ground to powder; we will be put to nothing.

Therefore again we have this spiritual concern in us that we discern all matters well and that we choose well. Let us choose as the wise man that dug a deep foundation and built his house thereupon and he let the storms then assail it and the rains beat vehemently upon it, and it suffered no loss, but it stood.

So are the children of God planted into this garden here upon earth. If they are founded upon this Solid Rock, they will stand. They will stand all spiritual trials and temptations. And we have read how God will make such an end to all temptations that we are able to bear them.

Oh, ofttimes over the spiritual children of God, many a storm assaileth! Ofttimes great dangers they are facing, and yet again the storm will lay itself and still itself, and we can feel how God was within the storm, and how well protected we were and that there was no harm that befell us.

Oh, beloved, when we trust in the Lord and when our faith is grounded upon Him, then we are able, are we not, to feel comforted; and it only gives us new life and encouragement when we hear of such.

And we find here also, "But with many of them God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness." Why were they overthrown in the wilderness?

We were reminded today of our Lord and Saviour Jesus in the wilderness, how He faced the many trials and temptations and how He overcame and how well-pleased God was with Him already when He took upon Himself to be baptized by John the Baptist. He went through with it in a humble way with the rest of the people when He was baptized. That was pleasing unto God, that He was humble, that He exalted Himself not because He was the Son of God, but rather humbled Himself that God could speak unto Him that He was well-pleased with Him as His Son.

And how God then did give Him grace there in the wilderness to overcome! He had only that to overcome with what we all have - that is the Word of God. If we only take it to hand and heart often and consider it and claim it for our drink and food, then we can be strengthened. Then we can be made able to not be overthrown in this wilderness where we are living, beloved ones.

It is a wilderness ofttimes when we consider the great evils round about us and how evil is multiplying itself. We cannot help but say, "It is an evil time."

But beloved, why is it such an evil time? It is because it is what the people make it. What God made, He made well and He made it good. But the people have made it what it is.

Let us therefore warn ourselves that we are not of such people that would take such sides and be overthrown.
--Sermon Excerpt: Elder Bro. H.K.

My Jesus, As Thou Wilt

My Jesus, as Thou wilt! Oh, may Thy will be mine!
Into Thy hand of love I would my all resign;
Through sorrow, or through joy, conduct me as Thine own,
And help me still to say, my Lord, Thy will be done!

My Jesus, as Thou wilt! Though seen through many a tear,
Let not my star of hope grow dim or disappear;
Since Thou on earth hast wept, and sorrowed oft alone,
If I must weep with Thee, my Lord, Thy will be done!

My Jesus, as Thou wilt! All shall be well for me;
Each changing future scene I gladly trust with Thee:
Straight to my home above I travel calmly on,
And sing, in life or death, my Lord, Thy will be done!

--Gospel Hymns #372

Be On Guard

But, even so, as far as the rapture is concerned, brethren, it is not said that everyone is going to be raptured. Only the true and faithful. Only those who have overcome.

That is why the Lord said, “In that night there shall be two in bed, the one taken and the other left. There shall be at that time two in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left.”

What makes the difference?

One was an overcomer and the other one wasn’t. So that’s the whole situation.

It certainly behooves us, by His grace, to remain on the side of the overcomer.

Now, the Lord said, not only to pray. Now we all have faith in prayer. But, remember, He said, “Watch and pray.”

I’ve known some poor souls that have been pushed over, and carried away in the spur of the moment, that when we spoke to them afterwards, they said, “Well, I always prayed.” But the poor soul didn’t watch.

So those two go together. Watching and praying. Praying alone, and watching alone, isn’t sufficient.

We should have our eyes open and know and discern the time in which we are living. Simply to wander around blindly in this world, and pray, isn’t sufficient. We must be on guard.

--Sermon Excerpt: Elder Bro. N.S.

Famine

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
--Amos 8:11-13

Let us never take for granted the hearing of the true Word of God.

Tokens of Affection

When things seem at their worst, I will
Still joy in His protection,
Who loves to bring out good from ill,
And grieves in my affliction.
His trials sent
Are all well meant;
His rod, a Father's chastisement,
Are tokens of affection.
--Zion's Harp #177 vs. 4

A Little Leaven

"A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." And here he says, keep out these little temptations, these little persuasions, that satan tries to instill in your hearts. For a little bit can soon leaven the whole lump. We could draw an illustration from a glass of pure water. If we drop in one drop of ink, the whole glass would soon be unfit for human consumption. It would be polluted.

Henceforth, it behooves us as Christians to keep ourselves, as we heard this afternoon, unspotted from the world; unspotted as the bride of Christ; as a pure, chaste virgin, that some day He shall come to gather in as His own. And what a glorious gathering that will be! This is the hope for which we wait. This is that which cometh by patience, by grace through faith.

He goes on to say, "I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be." Paul has never given up confidence in his fellow brethren, but rather he admonishes them and exhorts them to a firm walk in the faith which they have started. And so it should be with us. If we see our brethren or sisters overtaken in a fault, we are not given the authority to lose our confidence in them, but rather to admonish them in brotherly love and in sisterly love that they might once again regain grace in the sight of God.
--Sermon Excerpt: Bro. U.G.